*http://www.radio-canada.ca/nouvelles/International/2011/02/10/010-moubarak-rumeurs-egypte.shtml
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HOSNI MUBARAK
A LOOK BACK AT THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE EGYPTIAN PRESIDENT
February 11, 2011
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2011/02/11/f-hosni-mubarak-life-and-times.html
CBC News
Born on May 4, 1928, in the village of Kafr el-Moseilha, Mubarak opted for a military career. Trained as a fighter pilot, he climbed the ranks of the Egyptian Air Force and became Air Chief Marshall after the 1973 Yom Kippur War with Israel.
In 1975, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat picked Mubarak as his vice-president. He assumed the presidency in 1981, after Islamic militants assassinated Sadat during a military parade. Mubarak ruled Egypt for nearly 30 years, until his resignation on Feb. 11, 2011, after an 18-day wave of pro-democracy demonstrations by hundreds of thousands of Egyptians who demanded his removal.
POLITICAL LEGACY
Arguably Sadat’s single greatest foreign-policy achievement was making peace with Israel in 1979, and Mubarak continued the stewardship of that agreement for three decades. As a result, Mubarak enjoyed the political and financial support of the United States, which continued to ply Egypt with aid (in 2010, the U.S. gave the country $1.3 billion in military funding alone). Although Mubarak was seen as a valued interlocutor between the two sides of the Arab-Israeli conflict, he was unable to facilitate any lasting solutions.
On the domestic front, Mubarak will be remembered for maintaining law and order at all costs. Calls for democratic reform were repeatedly stifled, and the political ambitions of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood were thwarted through intimidation, persecution and torture. Violence between police and Islamist groups was a hallmark of Mubarak’s reign, as was a perpetual state of emergency.
Due to large-scale privatization, Egypt’s upper classes prospered tremendously during Mubarak’s tenure, while the general population grew bigger and poorer.
PERSONAL WEALTH
Many protesters have cited political repression as the cause of the recent uprising, but there have also been sustained accusations of corruption. Some sources claim the president and his two sons, Alaa and Gamal, have accumulated between $15 and $30 billion in wealth — and possibly more. Many claim that Mubarak has been enriching himself since he was in the army.
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